Violence ignites in China's northwest

Riots in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region left at least 27 people dead early Wednesday morning, Financial Times reported, citing state news agency Xinhua. Mobs armed with knives rushed police stations and the government building in the township of Lukqun, about 200 kilometers south of the regional capital Urumqi. Chinese media reports did not say what stirred the unrest. The violence was the worst in Xinjiang since July 2009 when nearly 200 people were killed in riots. Unrest has plagued the region where sporadic violence is common between Han Chinese and Uighurs, a Turkic ethnicity native China’s northwest.